


twinge

by lesbianmxgicians (kaianieves)



Category: The Magicians (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Feelings, Mentions of Penny's Death, Piano, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-05
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-07-31 13:23:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20115796
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaianieves/pseuds/lesbianmxgicians
Summary: The bed she laid in smelled of rot. It smelled of death. It stilled smelled a bit like him, even four months later.Of course, it didn’t actually smell that way. Julia had helped buy a new mattress and change the sheets before she’d fucked off on her quest with Quentin. Now Kady was waiting in the wings, waiting for them or Margo and Eliot or, hell even Josh to come up with something good. Useful, in the pursuit of finding and getting magic back.She heard a noise. A loud noise, kind of like a crash.





	twinge

**Author's Note:**

> [indestructress](indestructress.tumblr.com) gave me the idea of Kalice + piano. Also, second angsty fic that has to do with a piano- clearly a personal trend and/or thing to make note of to my therapist.

The bed she laid in smelled of rot. It smelled of death. It stilled smelled a bit like him, even four months later.

Of course, it didn’t actually smell that way. Julia had helped buy a new mattress and change the sheets before she’d fucked off on her quest with Quentin. Now Kady was waiting in the wings, waiting for them or Margo and Eliot or, hell even  _ Josh  _ to come up with something good. Useful, in the pursuit of finding and getting magic back.

Alice was there, too. She’d arrived after Penny’s death and spent tense time with Quentin, and then he went off and she was still here. For some reason. Kady thought she’d heard that her dad had passed, and that Alice had something to do with it. Maybe that was why? Probably.

Kady didn’t sleep much in that bed. When she did, all she dreamed of was Penny. Penny living, and then abruptly dying. Penny coming back and killing her for not saving his life, Freddy Krueger style. Penny’s face popping up in the mirror while she was brushing her teeth, only for him to disappear and her canines to suddenly drop from her mouth.

There was a set up on the floor beside the bed, something Kady had configured in the early morning. She’d caught a few hours of sleep, not nearly enough to make up for everything else, when she heard a noise. A loud noise, kind of like a crash. Maybe people had taken to finally looting Brakebills? Kady didn’t particularly care. But then there was another crash, and a thump followed by a robust rolling sound. She waited, head on her pillow for something else. Nothing.

Kady settled back down, head nuzzling into the pillow as her brain deemed the coast clear. But wait, she thought. Alice. She was still here. And they were friends, right? What if people were actually looting? There was no magic, and outside of that Kady wasn’t too sure about the woman’s self defense skills. One hand really wanted to go back to sleep. Another, bigger hand was ready to fight some bad guys for her estranged friend she barely knew. You already know which one was deemed the winner.

The stairs groaned under Kady’s feet as she quickly made her way down. The living room looked clear- Alice nowhere in sight. The curtains were pulled fully closed, darkening up the place. Kady moved forward, approaching a window to peer outside. On her way, she bumped into something. It was tall, at least up to her stomach. She reached the window, pulling a curtain to the side to let some light in.

It was a piano. Brown wood, gloss finish. Her eyes narrowed at it. Then Kady turned, using the natural light to track down a lamp beside the velvet ottoman. It cast yellow across the room, making everything look sort of buttery. The stool was tucked underneath the large instrument, dutifully waiting. Overall it looked like something you’d find in an underfunded Ohio church, probably somewhere in the nineties; the keys yellowed with age, the wood scratched with thin lines on the sheet music stand.

Kady felt an itch under her fingers, something she thought was long dead. She hadn’t played piano since… Since childhood. Since her mother had gotten her lessons as a hormonal, awkward pre-teen with too much time to notice things and no hobby to busy her. It feels like returning to a dusty old summer home when she pulls out the stool and sits down.

She went to press her fingers down on the keys, but she stopped. The last time she’d played, it was at a recital. Her mother had missed it, of course, even as Kady had been looking out at the crowd every few seconds to see if she could spot her. God, she had been so hopeful. Doubtful, she corrected in her head. Wrongfully doubtful about who her mother was, what type of life she lived.

The question of what to play danced on her mind for a moment, before it came to her. Kady looked at the keys, labeling them in her head like they had been when she was thirteen; written down on tiny purple stickers and stuck directly onto them.

The song started off simple but fast, four alternating notes. Then she moved her left hand, playing between four other, deeper notes. Kady got into the rhythm of it, riding the song out by memory: “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” had been her favourite for a long while. It seemed like a lifetime ago now.

“We will find you actin’ on your best behaviour,” she mumbled under her breath, focusing on the piano. “Turn your back on Mother Nature. Everybody wants to rule the-”

“What are you doing?” a voice asked from behind Kady. Her fingers froze, head turning to see Alice. She dressed differently now, too, Kady had noticed. Today she was wearing pants.

“It was sitting here, so I just-” Kady said, moving her hand vaguely as she stood, as if it sufficed as an explanation. There was a box in Alice’s arms. “What’s that?”

“Sheet music. It was in the basement next to the piano,” she said. Kady glanced back at the old thing. “I’ve been trying to haul it up from the basement all morning.”

“I heard,” Kady said. Alice just nodded. She could tell this interaction was weird too. A third of a year and the most interaction they’d had was Alice putting Kady’s toast plate in the kitchen sink when she got home and saw it on the counter.

“So you play,” she said quickly.

_ “Played,”  _ Kady emphasized.

“You sounded pretty good. Handwork was a bit sloppy but-” she cut herself short, shrugging the end of her compliment. “Tears for Fears was pretty much my everything when I turned eleven.”

Kady smiled a bit at that, unintentionally. “Same. I just thought the words were…  _ so deep,  _ y’know?” she said in a self-mocking tone.

“Well I mean, I guess they could be- they are,” Alice said. Something tippped the corners of her lips up just a bit, and she set the box down on the couch. Walking towards the piano, she sat at the bench, patting the small spot beside her. “Come here.”

Kady humored her, sitting down. Alice started playing those same four high notes again, the beginning to the song. Her fingers were quick and deft, like she’d been born playing this piano, this song over and over again. She paused when it was Kady’s turn, letting her get out the lower notes in their sequence. “Welcome to your life,” Alice sang softly, still playing along the keys. Her voice was high and quiet.

“There’s no turning back,” Kady sang with her. “Even while we sleep-”

“We will find you actin’ on your best behaviour-”

“Turn your back on Mother Nature-”

“Everybody wants to rule the world.”

There was this look as Alice’s eyes scrunched up a bit as she looked over at Kady that-

It made her heart twinge. It was new. Like a muscle that you’ve never had to use before is suddenly in use, and it’s kind of painful but also… interesting. Because it’s  _ new,  _ and underused, if ever used. She played the four lower notes again. Alice looked down at the keys again with something new in her eyes. The muscle moved again.

That night, Alice came and woke her up from another Penny nightmare. She held Kady’s hand, sitting on the edge of the bed with her. The rotten smell seemed to die down a little after she left. Alice’s remnant perfume smelled like chrysanthemums.


End file.
